Understanding Internet Technology - The Consumer View

In my last entry, I tried to give
you a straightforward depiction of how privacy policies and practices
are being made available to consumers. Important, but most people will
probably not find that terribly exciting. However, in the last
session, Lorrie Faith Cranor from Carnegie Mellon told us that in her
research, after reading and searching within a privacy policy, 98%
respondents correctly answered the question, “Does Acme site use
cookies?” That’s good news, but there are folks in the industry who
are concerned that consumers do not understand what cookies are how
they work or why they are used.

Well hold onto your seats because we
now move to the results of a contest, held by the Berkman Center for
Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, using the magic of
YouTube. Consumers were asked to create a video clip to answer the
question, “What is a Cookie?” Five finalists were selected and our own
VP of Public Policy, Mike Zaneis, was asked to be one of the judges to
select the winner. You can watch these insightful, helpful and witty
clips at http://youtube.com/group/cookiecrumble.

…And This is How the Cookie Crumbles

Surprising to some, but not to
others, the videos were relatively accurate, non-inflammatory and
matter-of-fact. None of the contestants professed fear of cookies or
mistook them for spyware. They even went so far to explain the various
mechanisms available to them to manage and express their cookie
preferences, in addition to recognizing the benefits of relevant
messages delivered to them because of this technology.

Simply put, without certain technology, like cookies, websites have no
memory. These technologies were first created to make things like
online shopping carts possible; to make the very idea of ecommerce a
reality. It is not a secret that cookies enable maintenance of website
preferences and personalization. And - shock! (to paraphrase Trevor
Hughes, Executive Director of the Network Advertising Initiative) -
they allow for relevant advertising and marketing, giving consumers the
commercial information they are more likely to want, when they want it,
where they want it. And though it has been alleged, no one at the Town
Hall has been able to demonstrate the harm in receiving a piece of
relevant marketing or advertising in connection with free news,
information, opinion, or, for example, an email service.

To Jeff Chester, Executive Director of the Center for Digital
Democracy, and his point about needing to ensure the diversification
and democratization of content, 12 million Americans are
blogging. Personal publishing is here, it’s subsidized by advertising,
and there is no shame in that. It is possibly worth exploring the level
to which consumers understand this concept, but identifying a need for
education does not justify qualifying online media and marketing as
“unsafe”.